Former manager Gareth Southgate led England to back-to-back European Championship finals as well as a World Cup semi-final in an eight year spell that boosted the confidence of many supporters who believe a trophy is on the horizon. However, despite manager Thomas Tuchel taking over, Mills spoke with with William Hill Vegas about how England fans must be realistic and realize their side is not the best on the planet.
“What people don’t understand is, being England manager is completely different to club management. It’s a completely different set of circumstances and scenarios.
“Listening to Thomas Tuchel, he said we’ve had 12 or 13 training sessions. That’s two weeks in club management. International management is about man-management and being able to throw something together last minute, make those players happy and get them to gel very quickly, keeping them onside. It’s tough. You have to understand international football and the players within that, and that’s never going to be easy.
“We don’t have the best players in the world. We seem to have this arrogance that we have the world’s greatest players, all these unbelievable young players, but the fact is that we don’t, simple as that.
“Realistically, when you look at our squad and the quality of players that will play and the experiences that they have, we are in the top six probably in the world, top eight. So we make a quarter-final, that’s about par. If we make a semi-final, that’s good. If we go on and make a final, that’s brilliant. If we win it, that’s a miracle! We have to be a bit more realistic I think as England fans.”
Following the 2-1 final defeat to Spain at Euro 2024, Southgate stepped down as England manager after eight years in charge. Tuchel claimed his side lacked excitement despite their success, and the German head coach will be hoping to inspire his side as well as a generation of fans who Mills believes have gotten a slightly arrogant over the past few years.